Last season, the ACC opener for Notre Dame men’s soccer turned into a national championship preview. The Irish outlasted Clemson, 3-2, in South Bend before facing the same Tigers in December. They played that second match in Louisville, where Notre Dame heads this weekend to start this year’s ACC schedule.
It’s been an unusually competitive start to the season for the Irish, who have tied their first two games for the first time in program history. Notre Dame opened with a 1-1 result at home against Akron before visiting Indiana and playing to a 2-2 draw last Thursday. Now, by the rankings, the Irish face their toughest challenge yet. Louisville ranks 15th in the United Soccer Coaches poll after a 3-0 start, good for the fifth-highest position among ACC teams. The Cardinals also did something to the Irish last year that no other team did for a near three-month stretch.
Series history
Between Sept. 13 and Dec. 10 of last year, only one team defeated Notre Dame. That team was Louisville in perhaps one of the wildest ACC matches of the season.
The Cardinals traveled to South Bend on Nov. 5 for the ACC Tournament quarterfinals as the bracket’s No. 9 seed. Notre Dame meanwhile, had just taken a first-round bye after locking up the top seed in the conference. The Irish, playing their best soccer of the year at that point, had every reason to cruise past Louisville.
But Sander Roed, who is still in the Cardinal midfield, refused to let that happen. The Norwegian registered a hat trick in the game’s first 52 minutes, sending Louisville into a 3-0 lead just after halftime. And yet, by the 88th minute, Notre Dame had tied the score at 3-3. Back-to-back goals from Bryce Boneau, another senior midfielder still with the Irish, sent the game into a frenzy. However, less than 66 seconds after Boneau’s equalizer, a Josh Jones goal pushed Louisville into a 4-3 lead it would not relinquish.
Louisville has also given Notre Dame trouble well beyond last year’s barnburner. The Cardinals have reached the NCAA Tournament in 15 of the last 17 seasons, and the Irish have borne the brunt of their success. In the last 15 meetings, Louisville holds an advantage of 9-4 with a pair of draws mixed in. The Irish have not won outright in the Derby City since the 2006 season.
Another test for Blake Kelly
True freshman goalkeeper Blake Kelly enters Friday’s match still looking for his first collegiate win. The Michigander has started each of Notre Dame’s first two games and carries a save percentage of .727.
Last Thursday, Kelly started on the road for the first time in his career, and Indiana threw plenty of looks at him. With the Hoosiers sending 18 shots in his direction, Kelly held his own and made eight saves, doing enough to get Notre Dame out with a draw. After the game, Notre Dame head coach Chad Riley praised Kelly’s ability to make saves from distance and in tight, command Indiana’s services and play like a veteran.
Lining up Louisville
Under fifth-year head coach John Michael Hayden, the Cardinals are off to a 3-0 start for the third consecutive season. Louisville has defeated Jacksonville (2-0) and Bellarmine (3-1) at home while topping Tulsa (2-1) on the road.
Three games in, a pair of seniors have led the Louisville offense with a goal and an assist each. Gage Guerra, a forward and former Army transfer who bypassed Portland’s third-round MLS SuperDraft selection during the offseason, has registered a point in all three games. Roed, the three-time All-ACC selection who torched the Irish a year ago, has scored in each of the last two contests.
Overall, Louisville only returned five of its players who started double-digit games last year. Among the team’s top six point-scorers from 2023, only Guerra and Roed are back. Like Notre Dame, the Cardinals have also gone to a first-year team member in goal. Sophomore Englishman Harvey Sellers has immediately taken over as Louisville’s goalkeeper after an NJCAA All-American season at Indian Hills Community College. Sellers has played every minute of Louisville’s season thus far, conceding only two goals while making eight saves.
Friday’s match against Notre Dame begins a challenging stretch of the schedule for Louisville. Over the next four weeks, the Cardinals will face four consecutive teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament a year ago and are ranked now. After the Irish, No. 16 Kentucky, No. 8 Pittsburgh and No. 20 Syracuse await before the competition lightens in late September.
First touch between Notre Dame and Louisville is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium.
